Lyle, WA: Catherine Creek. The siren song of Catherine Creek called to me… an hour’s drive up the Columbia River and a walk through the spring bloom of Grass Widows seemed appealing so I took advantage of a very fine spring day. After checking for mosses near the intersection of highway 14 and highway 8 (I couldn’t make them behave for the camera) I parked at Catherine Creek. The grass widows haven’t hit their peak display yet but the time is near.
Three species of Lomatium are blooming. The one pictured below is Lomatium columbianum.
While walking the path below the road I met a couple on the trail… they asked if I had seen the Pileated woodpecker… I had not but spent an enjoyable half hour stalking it and trying to capture a reasonable image… to no avail.
Back at trail head a car stopped and the man driving asked if I knew where the “Arch Rock” was located… it took me a minute to recall that I had seen an arch rock up the canyon about half a mile. I followed them to see if memory served correctly and sure enough. It was more impressive than I remembered.
byLarry
